Systems for detecting availability of agents to receive calls of various types are known in the art. Such systems are typically used in an organizational context as a means of distributing telephone calls among agents of the organization. To improve the consistency and quality of call handling, agents are typically segregated into groups to serve particular call targets of the organization.
Often the organization disseminates a single telephone number to its customers and to the public in general as a means of contacting the organization. As calls are directed to the organization from the telephone network, the automatic call distribution system directs the calls to its agents based upon some algorithm, typically based upon availability. For example, where all agents are considered equal, the automatic call distributor may distribute the calls based upon which agent position or telephone has been idle the longest.
Previous solutions that route transactions or calls based on agent selection are limited in that when the system wants to assign a voice contact to an agent, it is possible that the agent is not currently dialed in to the system. In that case, the system must dial the agent and have that agent answer in order to connect with the caller. The system may assign a call to the agent, only to have the agent receive another non-system related call prior to the system making the actual call. The system can tell that the device has answered, but not whether the answer was provided by the agent or the agent's voice mail system. The problem that arises is that a caller could be sent to an agent's voice mail. For example, the system directs a call to an agent who is waiting to take calls at home, but by chance, a friend calls the agent. The call generated by the system could get answered by the agent's voice mail.
The present invention overcomes these and other problems inherent in existing methods for routing calls to agents. The present invention provides a method for detecting the availability of a non-traditional agent that connects a transaction or caller to an agent only after the agent has confirmed its current availability status.